The
idea of "stripping" repeats of TV shows (running them daily Monday through
Friday) did not start at ABC, CBS and NBC but instead with local TV
stations in 1955.

Such filmed series
as "My Little Margie" and "Amos
'n' Andy" were big draws in the daytime, and the networks took
notice of their success. The first to respond was NBC, which on May
14, 1956, unveiled "Comedy Time" daily from 4-4:30 p.m.

The
initial attraction on "Comedy Time" was "I
Married Joan," a sitcom which ran on NBC from 1952-55. But the
network was jittery about the idea of how much recycled product the
daytime audience would tolerate, so to even it out, NBC purchased rights
to other sitcoms to rotate with "I Married Joan."

Unfortunately for
NBC, the network had few sitcom hits at the time, and the cancelled
ones which were available at the time to use were short-lived efforts;
only one lasted more than two seasons.

This situation led
to the oddest daily rerun series ever on network television, with many
of these shows getting their only repeats on this series, as they produced
too few episodes by themselves for local stations to want to rerun them.

"Comedy Time"
wound up with the following bizarre slate of sitcom repeats: